1. Field
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to the field of electronic communication and more specifically to a method of utilizing a WiFi beacon for communication with smart computing devices.
2. Related Art
As smart devices gain popularity, vulnerable road users are increasingly distracted by the activities with the devices, such as listening to music, watching videos, texting, or making calls while walking or bicycling on the road. Such users are increasingly at risk of becoming involved in accidents with vehicles on the streets; the number of headphone-wearing pedestrians seriously injured or killed near roadways and railways has tripled since 2004. Although much work in the area of pedestrian safety in intelligent systems is directed towards alerting a driver of the vehicle with pedestrian detection sensors and nighttime infrared cameras, direct alerts from vehicles to vulnerable road users still heavily rely on the traditional sound warning method of a vehicle horn. However, smartphone-using road users are increasingly shutting out the external safety related warning sounds. In roughly one-third of the serious incidents noted above, eyewitnesses indicated that horns or sirens sounded before the victim was hit. Although various safety infrastructure, such as traffic lights, warning signs, and alert sensors, is deployed on the streets to reduce the risk of collisions, present mechanisms are incapable of providing direct alerts to the distracted vulnerable road users tailored to the specific scenarios.
Thus, there is presently a need for a bi-directional communication system between vehicles and smart devices of vulnerable road users that can directly exchange personalized alerts to both drivers and vulnerable road users to recommend ways to avoid imminent collisions in a timely manner.